Smacked children at greater risk of developing cancer and heart disease

Psychologists have found that the use of harsh punishment in childhood increases the risk of disease in later life. They say the link could be caused because harsh punishment causes stress, and theincreased stress levels in childhood then cause biological changes that increase the risk of disease in later life. Michael Hyland, from the University's School of Psychology, led the study. He said: "Early life stress in the form of trauma and abuse is known to creating long term changes that predispose to later disease. But this study shows that in a society where corporal punishment is considered normal, the use of corporal punishment is sufficiently stressful to have the same kinds of long term impact as abuse and trauma." The study, conducted by Hyland and colleagues Ahmed Alkhalaf and Ben Whalley, involved 700 people in Saudi Arabia, 250 of whom were healthy but another 150 who each had asthma, cancer or cardiac disease. Participants were asked whether, and how often, they had been physically or verbally punished as children. Those who had cancer were 1.7 times more likely to have been beaten as a child compared to the healthy sample: Those with cardiac disease were 1.3 times more likely and those with asthma 1.6 times more likely.